Brotherhood calls for military ‘to return to its barracks’

Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood gestures as they stand close to an image of deposed president Mohamed Morsi at a makeshift brick barricade erected along Nasr City’s main street, a district of eastern Cairo, on July 28, 2013.(AFP PHOTO/FAYEZ NURELDINE)

The Muslim Brotherhood said on Friday that it is “seeking to correct the upended situation and the return of the people as the owner of the state and its institutions”.

The Brotherhood’s statements came days after both presidential candidates Hamdeen Sabahy and former military chief Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi vowed that the group, now branded a terrorist organisation in Egypt, would cease to exist in Egypt in the future.

In its Friday statement the group said: “Dictatorial regimes have accused the Muslim Brotherhood of working to disrupt the institutions of the state and to suspend the constitution in order to distort its image.” The Brotherhood said that the “regimes” have “put it [the Brotherhood] under the penalty of law and approving severe punishment on them” to the extent of “accusing the group of terrorism, which won the confidence of the people in all fair elections”.

“After the 25 January Revolution the people’s increased hope to get rid of military rule and eliminate corruption and tyranny were sky high,” said the Brotherhood. It said that the year of Morsi’s rule was “filled with obstacles, fabricated problems, media incitement and internal and external conspiracies, in preparation for the onslaught of military power again on 3 July 2013”.

It added that the situation in Egypt is “the worst since the days of 1952”, referring to the military led ouster of the royal family and British occupation and the establishment of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

Since the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi on 3 July 2013, security forces have cracked down on the Brotherhood and its supporters. The cabinet declared the group a terror organisation in December, a decision that was later ratified by a court ruling. Much of the group’s leadership, including its Supreme Guide Mohamed Badie, is in prison and facing criminal charges, as are other ranking members living abroad.

The Brotherhood said the “military establishment” should “return to its barracks and exercise its specialisation and role of defence and protection and to move away from politics and government”. The group also called for greater separation of powers in governance and for “the people to cleanse all state institutions”, adding: “It is the only way to remove Egypt from tyranny and push it on the road to power and construction and the elimination of chronic problems.”

The group said: “Countries without institutions or with weak and ruptured institutions live in chaos, not to mention the possibility of it [being] torn apart and divided”. It stressed it “will not allow” this to happen to Egypt. “The Brotherhood want Egypt to be a great strong country”, which it believes will drive progress in the region due to “its influence in third world countries [that] is no secret throughout history”.